JESUS CALMS OUR STORMS

June 14, 2020 Mark 4- “Jesus Calms the Storm”  Ps. 107:29; Mk. 4:35-41

     When I was a boy my father and I were in a little jon boat on a pond in Newberry County going fishing together.  We had a little electric motor.  We had made our way around the edges with no luck so we decided to go out into the middle of the pond.  About that time, and very suddenly a funnel cloud came up- and we saw a tornado.  My father didn’t say a word, I was not so calm.  We quickly headed our little electric motor toward the shore, but we were getting absolutely nowhere.  I started paddling with the motor, and we were moving like molasses on a cold day in January.  We could hear trees cracking, felt the strong wind and the little pond started having white caps.  To say we were praying would be an understatement.  The tornado missed us, and after it was all over we got to shore. 
     I kind of feel like that about what is happening.  We hear of things breaking around us: health, whether people feel safe to get out, family tension from being closed in, racial tension and injustice.  Maybe there are signs that the storm is going to pass us- or it may be that we are in the eye of the storm, but I hope we are calling out like the disciples- “Lord save us!”
     We thought we were having it bad in South Carolina when the Coronavirus hit and everything shut down in mid-March.  But then in mid-April we had a rash of 16 tornadoes hit our state in one night.  The Washington Post wrote about it as a unique occurrence when two tornadoes from two different systems actually merged to form a mega-tornado near Williston-Elko, South Carolina.  I can remember the governor coming on TV telling us that we who were already under one state of emergency would declare another state of emergency.  Then the deaths of three African Americans at the hands of white men in Georgia, Louisville, and in Minneapolis led to protests, but then riots, and then calls to defund or even ban the police.  What next?  Murder hornets?  Portuguese Man-O-Wars hitting our beaches?  SO WHAT IS GOING ON?   When should I start looking over my shoulder? 
       It is hard to understand.  I, as a Presbyterian, have often thought we are meant to understand everything.  But quite to the contrary, John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church refused to answer questions that scripture did not fully answer.  He would not get involved in the scholastic questions of his day like “How many angels could fit on the head of a pin.”  But he would say what scripture says.  Remember Job?  Some of us are feeling a bit like Job these days- his business, his savings, his children, his health were all taken from him.  He was extremely perplexed.  He asked God for an answer.  God’s answer came in the last chapters- one verse sums it up, “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.”  He goes on and says, “Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? …Where were you when I laid off the earth’s foundations?”  The answer is that it is unanswerable here.  The old song says it right, “We’ll understand it all bye and bye.”  We cannot comprehend the variables.  Research says we cannot handle solving more than four problems at a time.  Yet there are billions of people.  I think, if this is true research that any more than four major problems overwhelms us too. 
        Circumstances can seem to overwhelm you.  But they do not overwhelm our soul.  This is the point of this passage.  The crux of this passage is not when the wind blew, or when the lightning flashed, or even when the water started to come into the boat.  It is not when the disciples turned and called out to Jesus.  It is not even when Jesus calmed the waters.  The crucial point in this passage is when Jesus looked at the disciples and said, “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?”  It was at that point that they asked, “Who IS this?” 
         WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID?  Fear can grip us and control us.  Fear can take our circumstances and blow them up bigger than they need to be.  Fear can make us curl up in the fetal position and lock ourselves in a padded cell.  Now Jesus can say, “Why are you so afraid?”  But that is not our place to ask others.  Christians are not to flaunt our courage or be foolhardy.  But perfect love casts out fear.  In other words, when you love something you risk it.  One of the problems is that some of our governors, some of our preachers, maybe even some of you think religion is not important.  Even in Jesus’ day, people went to see Jesus because he gave bread to them, or he was entertaining, or maybe he could help them with a healing.  But when you think something is important you risk for it.  Our God is not our health.  The crazy thing is that we the longer our life expectancy has grown, statistically, the less we have devalued eternal life.  Life expectancy for my grandfather in 1900 was 42; For my father in 1960s is 62; for today it is 72, and our major expense in life is healthcare.  In Richland and Lexington Counties the biggest buildings are not churches or malls but hospitals.  Health and long life hear and ease of pain are great blessings from God- and answers to thousands of years of prayer.  But we fool ourselves when we only live for our health.  There is something more important than our health.  Jesus was saying this to the disciples here.  There is something more important in the boat than your health.  If you can’t understand why Jesus asked, “Why are you so afraid?”  Then take another look.  God is more important than your health.  God is in the boat with you. The waves of life may seem to be overwhelming you- but God is here.  Call out to Him. 
       DO YOU STILL HAVE NO FAITH?  Now the disciples had seen amazing things and heard amazing teachings.  They had heard demons shriek and say that he was the Son of God.  They had seen people healed who had been sick for their whole life time.  He had healed lepers.  He had preached the Sermon on the Mount- the greatest sermon ever preached and greatest philosophy ever espoused.  John has Jesus calming the storm after the feeding of the 5,000.  How can you see all that and still have no faith?  How much does it take- is what Jesus was asking.  So let me ask you, “How much does it take for you to really put your trust in Jesus?”  How much does it take for you to believe that Jesus can calm your storm?  How much does it take to believe Jesus can help you through your family problems?  How much does it take before you give up your fear of losing your sin and instead put your trust in the living God who calms the waters?  How many storms, how much water in the boat, how many infections around us, how much fear of racial strife, how much economic ruin will it take before you say, “My Lord and my God!”  What does Jesus have to do?  How many storms in your life does He have to see you through?  How many times does He have to provide for you?  How many blessings does He have to bestow on you?  Is Jesus asking this about you as He asked it of his own disciples- “Do you still have no faith?”  Does He have to rise from the dead before you see that you health is not the main thing in life? 
       This passage ends with two rhetorical questions.  One is (what we just talked bout) “Do you still have no faith?” and the other is, “Who is this?”  If you had been in the boat, and you had seen it go up an down and the waves crash in, and Jesus gets up and rebukes it, who would you say it is?  If you had been on the shore and Jesus fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves and fishes, who would you say it is?  If you had been in that room with the door shut and Jesus came in and said, “Peace be with you?”  Who would you say it is? 
     Martin Luther was persuaded to be a monk in a storm.  I told God in the midst of a tornado at Camp Barstow that I would even become a minister if he saved me.  Storms are terrible and scary.  But even storms can bring good.  One of the best pictures ever taken on Lake Murray was a picture at a fourth of July fireworks gathering taken by Kenny Anderson of the cross beside the lake all lit up with lightning. 
     In 75 countries the searches for prayer hit five year highs.  People are looking to find Jesus in the midst of this storm.  The number of people doing internet searches for “hope”  on Christian sites has increased 170% according to Christianity Today. 
    John Newton was a kind of a wild guy who became a sailor.  He left the navy and became a slave trader- bullying and torturing other human beings.  But in 1748 his ship was almost sunk at sea.  He was thrown overboard and called out to God – like the people in the boat called out to Him.  God saved Him.  He later went on to write- “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me- I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”  He worked with Wilburforce to abolish the slave trade in England.  God can change you through a storm.  He can change you through this storm if you will call out to Him and let Him help you.